FINDING SIZE OF ARRAY

Array Size

The size of an array can be determined using scalar context on the array - the returned value will be the number of elements in the array:

@array = (1,2,3); print "Size: ",scalar @array,"\n";

The value returned will always be the physical size of the array, not the number of valid elements. You can demonstrate this and the difference between scalar @array and $#array, using this fragment as follows:

#! /uer/bin/perl

@array = (1,2,3);

$array[50] = 4;

$size = @array;

$max_index = $#array;

print "Size:  $size\n";

print "Max Index: $max_index\n";

This will produce following result:

Size: 51

Max Index: 50

There are only four elements in the array that contain information, but the array is 51 elements long, with a highest index of 50.